It is common practice in the electronics industry to test electronic devices using a test fixture. These test fixtures include a socket into which the electronic device is inserted during testing. However, when an electronic device is inserted into the socket, pieces of molding compound often break free from the edges of the electronic device and accumulate within the socket. As numerous electronic devices are tested, debris, which is predominately pieces of molding compound from previously tested electronic devices, rapidly accumulates within the socket and adversely affects the performance of the test fixture.
The traditional approach to removing debris from the socket is to blow air down into the socket while no device is within the socket. However, while this approach removes some of the debris from the socket, other pieces of the debris are forced deeper into the contact interface of the socket. This is especially true for sockets having a micro-strip contact interface.
Another approach for preventing the accumulation of debris within the socket is to blow air on the electronic devices before placing them into the socket. This approach attempts to remove loose pieces of the molding compound from the electronic devices prior to inserting the devices into the socket. However, this approach does not effectively prevent debris from accumulating in the socket. Molding compound still breaks free when inserting the electronic devices into the socket, and, over time, the debris adversely affects the performance of the test fixture. Thus, there remains a need for a system and method for effectively removing debris from a socket of a test fixture for testing electronic devices.